Is $3 Gallon Near?

Is $3 Gallon Near?

NEW YORK -- Gasoline prices, reversing a two-month slide, are again approaching records and at least one expert thinks they could hit $3 per gallon soon in the United States, according to CNN/Money.

"We'll see it within a year," T. Boone Pickens, head of the billion-dollar hedge fund BP Capital Management, said on CNN's "In The Money" over the weekend.

Pickens noted the discrepancy between the $2 per gallon price of gas in the United States and $5 per gallon price in Europe. "The energy situation is global," he said. "I know there are taxes involved in the pricing . . . but eventually it's going to have to move up."

Gasoline prices mounted a renewed surge last month, with regular self-serve rising 8 cents to average $2.21 a gallon, according to the Lundberg Survey. That's just 7 cents below the all-time high set April 8.

Pickens said a shortage of oil is the main reason behind the price increase and didn't see how the world could produce more than the current 84 to 85 million barrels a day that currently comes out of the ground.

"We're coming up on a brick wall," he said. "The fourth quarter this year is going to maybe be the most interesting quarter I've ever experienced in my 50 years in the oil industry."